A sex beast who claimed being a paedophile didn’t bother him has been locked up.

Jordan Yardley was given an extended prison sentence of 39 months, which means he will serve 27 months in custody before being subject to 12 months post release supervision.

The 22-year-old was also told his name will remain on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely and he faces being returned to prison if he breaches any of the supervision conditions.

Yardley, from Livingston, West Lothian, was serving a community sentence and was already a registered sex offender when he started “grooming” a person he thought was a 12-year-old girl on social media.

He was snared for the new offence after he sent indecent sexual messages to a decoy who was pretending to be an under-age schoolgirl.

In reality his Facebook friend was actually a member of the paedophile vigilante group Wolf Pack Hunters.

When the decoy told Yardley online that she was only 12 he replied that “age was not an issue”. He offered to take her to the woods and teach her how to kiss and told her he would “teach her about sex” when she turned 13.

He gave the “youngster” his mobile phone number during chats on Meet4U and WhatsApp and told her that his real name was Jordan and that he was 20 years old.

He repeatedly asked her to send him naked pictures of herself, but the adult woman really conversing with him told him she couldn’t because her “little brother” had broken the phone’s camera.

He arranged to meet the youngster for sex but instead was confronted by members of the group who streamed the encounter live on the internet.

When he was quizzed on camera about his motives for meeting a young girl for sex Yardley confessed that being a paedophile “didn’t bother him”.

Livingston Sheriff Court was told Yardley’s previous conviction in 2016 was for possessing indecent images of children being sexually abused.

Andy Aitken, defending, said reports by social workers and a psychologist “alarmingly” assessed Yardley as being at high risk of reoffending.

He said: “Unless the root of his offending is treated he will continue to be a risk.”

He said medical experts believed Yardley had an autistic spectrum disorder or schizoid personality disorder, either of which significantly affected his ability to understand his offending and the level of risk he posed.

Passing sentence, Sheriff Peter Hammond told Yardley: “The factor not in dispute is that you do have a sexual interest in children which is persistent and appears to be escalating.

“The concern of the court must be to protect the public and deter others from behaving in the same way. In particular the court is concerned to protect young people from this kind of predatory and reprehensible behaviour.

“It is not clear you have an appreciation of remorse or any insight into your offending or its impact on those who could be affected by it.

“In all the circumstances I take the view that only a custodial sentence would be appropriate.”

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